Firefighters across Collin County, neighboring areas, and citizens with hoses battling multiple large blazes

A Collin County dispatcher advises that both fires are either out or 100 percent contained.

== 5:15 p.m. ==

Fire crews from more than a dozen cities are battling large field fires on opposite ends of Collin County.

“Citizens are out there with hoses,” Collin County Fire Marshall Michael Smith told me this afternoon, during a brief break from coordinating the multi-agency effort.

In the northern part of the county, near Blue Ridge, the so-called Lackney Drive fire was sparked by a combine harvester cutting wheat, Smith said. By 4:30 p.m. it was 90 percent contained, but only after growing to 115 acres.

At least seven cities and the Texas Forestry Service were fighting that blaze, having managed to protect a couple nearby structures.

Then down south, near Nevada, about a dozen cities from Collin and Hunt counties had partially contained a 50-plus acre field by late afternoon. That one started about 3 p.m. and “got real big real fast” in these hot, dry conditions, Smith told me.

All this follows on an earlier, smaller fire in the eastern part of the county. That one only grew to five acres, but with the blazes coming almost back to back, Smith said area resource are stretched thin.

I asked if the current blazes would be contained by sundown. “I sure hope so,” Smith replied. “These guys are wore out.”